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Do any of you teach Spanish or another foreign language at the elementary level? We would really like to include Spanish in our homeschooling for a number of reasons. One is that DH is fluent in it and some of his family still only speaks Spanish. He can't really teach it to them(besides talking to them in it more frequently which he needs to do) because he never learned it in school, just in life so he doesn't really know all the proper things to teach. I took 4 years in high school and 2 years of it in college so I am okay at it but I would really like to find an easy(and hopefully fun!) curriculum to do for it. My kids are 8, 7 and 3 if that helps. Thanks!

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We use Lightning Fast Spanish. (link is for the book at Amazon) It's a really thin book! Basically it breaks the language down into things you do every day and teaches a few easy sentences and a bunch of vocabulary so you can speak it quickly. One of the lessons is getting dressed in the morning and has the vocabulary so that you can ask them if they want to wear the green pants or the blue pants, tell them to put on the red shirt, etc. The boys really like it, but I've found that they don't retain a whole lot if we take time off. There's now a second book too.

We use Lightning Fast Spanish. (link is for the book at Amazon) It's a really thin book! Basically it breaks the language down into things you do every day and teaches a few easy sentences and a bunch of vocabulary so you can speak it quickly. One of the lessons is getting dressed in the morning and has the vocabulary so that you can ask them if they want to wear the green pants or the blue pants, tell them to put on the red shirt, etc. The boys really like it, but I've found that they don't retain a whole lot if we take time off. There's now a second book too.

We had Leapfrog Spanish for kids ($20 at target) and it was great fun for basic vocabulary, colors, calendar, clothes, body parts, etc. but didn't really teach sentance structure and syntax. Thekids liked it though and I'm sure your younger two would like it just for vocabulary supplement.

We have tried Duo Lingo, a free internet website but I haven't been able to add it into our schedule on a regular basis for some reason. We are in a new co-op ths year and are giving Excelerate Spanish (http://exceleratespanish.com/) a try, I'll keep you posted on likes/dislkes for this program! We are using this with a group of 7-9 year olds but I have used Duo Lingo with my now 5, 7 & 9 y/o boys. I have also used it solo for both French & Spanish.

Thank you so much for answering this because I'm looking for the same. I'm especially looking for something geared for children that would teach more than vocabulary (like grammar and verb tenses and such).

We use Duolingo and I really like it for our older child (age 11) and for myself as it actually teaches concepts (though not directy...it doesn't explain things, but it introduces them slowly and in a good order in a way that I think they can internalize). But I don't see it working well for younger kids. Even my middle child (age 9) doesn't like it. Not enough fun stuff. But if the kids do well on something like Kahn academy, they might like this.

All other things we've done or tried just really teach vocabulary, but for that here's what I've liked best.

These free websites are great:

http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/mimundo/mimundo/default.html (entirely in Spanish, but very interactive and great practice one they have some vocabulary under their belt)

The following is a page I put together with resources for learning colors and shapes. The best thing on it I think is the idea of using UNO for teaching colors and numbers, and it has a list of other vocabulary you can add in while using the game. I never told the kids this was "for learning Spanish," I just started saying the names of the numbers whenever I put them down, and whenever I would change colors I would use the color names (and also if I was out I would say "No tengo rojo." and I'd add in other little Spanish phrases. Pretty soon even my middle son who was really resistant to learning Spanish was saying the words and phrases too. You can do that with a lot of games.

My kids really liked Basho and Friends and Perro y Gato videos (note: on Basho and friends some are promotional videos but ti's worth wading through to find their music videos in Spanish. They have lyrics on their website)

If you have an iphone the following apps are nice (I'm sure some are available on other systems too):

MindSnacks Spanish - My fave. Mostly vocab but just excellent. Comes at it from different directions (audio, spelling, word order, etc). Very fun games. Pretty endless (I have not gotten to the end of their material after two years of playing this off and on). Worth paying for.

Play & Learn Spanish (by Selectsoft) - Not only has vocabulary, but puts the vocabulary in context (They have various scenese where you can click on items to learn the vocabulary, then switch over to "phrases" to click on the people in the scenes who will say sentences using words from that scene, and then you can also flip over to game mode to get quizzed on the vocab.

Ottercall - My son loves this game. It's used for learning how to pronouce words. You do have to be in an absolutely quiet room to use it though.

We had Leapfrog Spanish for kids ($20 at target) and it was great fun for basic vocabulary, colors, calendar, clothes, body parts, etc. but didn't really teach sentance structure and syntax. Thekids liked it though and I'm sure your younger two would like it just for vocabulary supplement.

We have tried Duo Lingo, a free internet website but I haven't been able to add it into our schedule on a regular basis for some reason. We are in a new co-op ths year and are giving Excelerate Spanish (http://exceleratespanish.com/) a try, I'll keep you posted on likes/dislkes for this program! We are using this with a group of 7-9 year olds but I have used Duo Lingo with my now 5, 7 & 9 y/o boys. I have also used it solo for both French & Spanish.

Thank you so much for answering this because I'm looking for the same. I'm especially looking for something geared for children that would teach more than vocabulary (like grammar and verb tenses and such).

We use Duolingo and I really like it for our older child (age 11) and for myself as it actually teaches concepts (though not directy...it doesn't explain things, but it introduces them slowly and in a good order in a way that I think they can internalize). But I don't see it working well for younger kids. Even my middle child (age 9) doesn't like it. Not enough fun stuff. But if the kids do well on something like Kahn academy, they might like this.

All other things we've done or tried just really teach vocabulary, but for that here's what I've liked best.

These free websites are great:

http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/mimundo/mimundo/default.html (entirely in Spanish, but very interactive and great practice one they have some vocabulary under their belt)

The following is a page I put together with resources for learning colors and shapes. The best thing on it I think is the idea of using UNO for teaching colors and numbers, and it has a list of other vocabulary you can add in while using the game. I never told the kids this was "for learning Spanish," I just started saying the names of the numbers whenever I put them down, and whenever I would change colors I would use the color names (and also if I was out I would say "No tengo rojo." and I'd add in other little Spanish phrases. Pretty soon even my middle son who was really resistant to learning Spanish was saying the words and phrases too. You can do that with a lot of games.

My kids really liked Basho and Friends and Perro y Gato videos (note: on Basho and friends some are promotional videos but ti's worth wading through to find their music videos in Spanish. They have lyrics on their website)

If you have an iphone the following apps are nice (I'm sure some are available on other systems too):

MindSnacks Spanish - My fave. Mostly vocab but just excellent. Comes at it from different directions (audio, spelling, word order, etc). Very fun games. Pretty endless (I have not gotten to the end of their material after two years of playing this off and on). Worth paying for.

Play & Learn Spanish (by Selectsoft) - Not only has vocabulary, but puts the vocabulary in context (They have various scenese where you can click on items to learn the vocabulary, then switch over to "phrases" to click on the people in the scenes who will say sentences using words from that scene, and then you can also flip over to game mode to get quizzed on the vocab.

Ottercall - My son loves this game. It's used for learning how to pronouce words. You do have to be in an absolutely quiet room to use it though.